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Anthony Thigpenn: “We actually do a hybrid. So we build neighborhood-based precinct teams, but we also have sometimes paid teams, but even that are people from our community. So we provide stipends for people who are available, maybe unemployed and so are available during the weekday. They’ll walk precincts but these are still the same people who live in those neighborhoods. The advantages are a couple: one, there is a relationship that they have with the voter that somebody from outside just doesn’t have, they can talk about the supermarket, they can talk about the church next door, to really connect with people and motivate them in very real and meaningful ways.  And the second thing is, as they do it over time, as they do it over several election cycles, they get better.  They know the terrain, they know where the polling location is, they know the house where there’s a dog and you shouldn’t go in, and so their work is much more effective, just from a practical point of view, as well as being much more effective from an organizing point of view of being able to move voters”